I
noticed something not long ago which surprised me: Vocal intercessory prayer
appears to be experiencing a major revival among liberal unprogrammed
meetings!Friends may not
recognize it as such.The language
used to refer to it varies from meeting to meeting, but often runs something
like the following:"Please hold
my friend Jane in the light. She's going through a really hard time with her
youngest child." Or, "My father is going into surgery on Thursday morning for
his prostate cancer: I would ask you to hold him in your hearts during his
surgery."

This
language may have a bit of a New Age ring to it. in my view, however, the same
deep process is at work whether the speaker is asking others to pray for
someone explicitly or asking them to hold her/him "up to the Light".After all, what is this "Light" we are
holding the person in or up to if not God?

Some
meetings provide a special time for this kind of request or information sharing
following meeting for worship.It
may be called "twilight meeting" or "joys and sorrows".Sometimes such requests are made during
meeting for worship itself. They may enter in between introductions and
announcements.Other meetings set
aside a completely different time such as a prayer group or healing circle for
sharing these kinds of requests.

All this
praying for others started me reflecting on what it actually means to bring up
another person's needs to God.If
you think about it, mentioning someone's needs to God involves some deep
paradoxes.The first paradox of
intercessory prayer involves what theologians call "omniscience."If you believe (as I do) that God knows
all about us including all of our needs even better than we do, why should we
need to tell God about our own or someone else's special needs?

The
second basic paradox of intercessory prayer involves the equality of God's
regard for all of her/his children. Since we assume that God loves all of humanity
(perhaps even all of Creation) equally, it seems wrong that God would direct
more healing or caring energy towards one person than other just because one -
or even many - people are praying for that individual.

A
great puzzle that many of us struggle with is whether God can, in fact, resuce
indiviual humans from death despair, illnesss or suffering.Because we believe God's concern and
love for us are without limit, we presume that God longs for each of us to be happy and healthy - to live long and, as
far as possible, free from unnecessary pain.Nonetheless, there may be fundamental reasons why God either
might not choose or might not be able to rescure individuals from suffering and
death. This is something that both theologians and simple people of faith have
been wrestling with for centuries. The reasons, however, why healing fails to
occur in a specific instance are unlikely to include either God's unfamiliarity
with the problem or the
shortage of supportive friends and family praying for the person in need.

Some people
avoid needing to wrestle with these questions about the nature of God because
they focus on another important benefit of prayer.This involves the good that flows towards those being prayed
for from sensing the love and caring in the hearts of those who are praying for
them.Certainly we know that
people heal more easily and flourish emotionally when they know others care
about them.There has been
significant scientific research that suggests that those who are ill or in pain
receive benefit from others praying for them even when they do not know by any
direct outward means that others are doing this.My own family has extraordinary stories of hearts knit
together across distance that is hard to explain: such as people who knew the
moment that a loved one was dying at a great distance.As real and important as such indirect
benefits of prayer are, I personally am unable to leave God out of the prayer
process.

Another
important reason why many of us pray is because we have been asked to do so:Jesus, Paul, Francis of Assisi, Fox and many other great spiritual
leaders have enjoined us to pray for one another.But again, this cannot be an entire answer.It is important for most of us to
understand the deeper reasons why we are doing something, even if we feel great
trust in those who have asked us to do this. And so I am brought back to the
original question, why am I
praying in relation to the God who is at the heart of my universe and what am I
hoping will happen as a result?

Perhaps
when we pray for another what we are asking for above all is not for God to do something different with that
person.God is already doing what
needs to happen: loving that person, sending her/him healing energy and
reassurance and hope.Perhaps what
we are asking for is something to change in the heart of the person being
prayed for - to enable her/him to receive the love and healing that are flowing
already from God.In some
cases this may involve being able to face suffering or death if that will be
the ultimate outcome.Or it may be
that what we are praying for is a transformation in the situation that will
enable the prayer recipient to open up her/his heart toward God and toward the
universe without fear and anxiety.

But
when we pray we are also inviting a change to happen in ourselves. I learned this additional reason for
praying for each other from my limited understanding of Al-Anon, the network of
support groups for family members of alcoholics.Family members often discover that they have been trying for
years to rescue a family member from her/his addiction.They sometimes find this a critical,
though very difficult, step to ending their codependency with their loved one's
addiction.This can lead to finally
reaching the point where they are ready and able to turn their loved one
struggling with addiction over to God.When we pray for someone else we are asking God to work in that person's
heart for healing and change rather than trying to take on the responsibility
for change ourselves.

So
when we pray, we express our longing for God to work change in our own lives
and hearts as much as in the heart and life of the person we're praying
for.We are asking for the
capacity to let go of our own anxiety, fear, or the sense that we are
ultimately responsible for our loved one. We are asking our community of faith
to join with us in placing the entire situation at God's feet: bringing about a
graceful willingness both in ourselves and in the person in need to lean on God
and let go of fear or whatever may
be interfering with God's powerful love touching all who are involved.

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Quote that speaks to me

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle; the Root and Record of their friendship. If absence be not death, neither is theirs. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this Divine Glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This
is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet
their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present,
because immortal. - William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude, 1702.

Note: This passage was quoted by J.K.Rowling as the epigraph of her novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

It is as a "religion of life" that Quakerism will be presented in the future and is being presented now.

Its distinguishing note will be its resolve to bring all this human life of ours under the transforming power of spiritual life.It
will stand out against all divisions and compartments that separate the
sacred from the secular, the sanctuary from the outward world of
nature, the sacrament from the days' common work, the clergy from the
laity.

It will tell of a Christian
experience that makes all life sacred and all days holy, all nature a
sanctuary, all work a sacrament, and gives to every man and woman in the
body fit place and service.Its concern will be to
multiply men and women who will have a message of power because they are
themselves the children of light.It will claim the whole
of man's life, and the whole of life, individual, social, national
international, for the dominion of the will of God.

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